EXCLUSIVE: Kasich will not waver on controversial stances

With election almost a year away, Kasich says he'll stick to his stances, however contentious they may be

Aug. 18, 2013

The Enquirer/Liz Dufour

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Approaching the one-year mark before his re-election bid, Gov. John Kasich has no plans to back down from controversial stances such as expanding Medicaid and leveraging sales taxes to cut income taxes.

If voters aren’t happy, “That’s why we have elections,” the Republican governor told The Enquirer in an exclusive interview last week. Kasich said his leadership approach has increasingly involved listening to stakeholders and compromising, but “sometimes you can’t build all that consensus. You just have to lead.”

If conservatives aren’t happy, he isn’t sure why. He recently told one person, “We have a balanced budget. We’re running a surplus. We’ve had tax cuts. We have economic growth. What exactly are you unhappy about?”

As Kasich makes a final push to expand Medicaid under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, some conservatives are indeed unhappy. Kasich said his position comes down to principles, many drawn from his Christian faith. He can respect those who disagree with his policies, he said, “as long as they’re not worried about their own political hides.”

Now some of Kasich’s past supporters, particularly tea partiers, are debating the consequences of withdrawing their support from the governor. If the loss of their campaign money and votes means Ohio elects Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald, so be it, said Ted Stevenot, president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition and co-founder of the Clermont County Tea Party.

“If you had a Democrat governor, Republicans in the House would have been more united in opposing Medicaid. So it’s not the end of the world,” Stevenot said.

A 'change agent' - who's willing to change

Kasich says the criticism is natural, since he views himself as a “change agent” drawn to bold ideas. In outlining his leadership philosophy, he emphasized persisting in the face of opposition as a way to set an example.

“However, you shouldn’t try to drive change with a sharp edge,” he said. “People want the leader to understand their problems. And I think I’ve grown in that.”

For instance, he said, he’s been willing to listen and revise his proposal for higher taxes on oil and natural gas obtained through fracking, which breaks up shale to release fossil fuels. In his new proposal, 25 percent of that revenue would go back to eastern Ohio, where fracking is booming, and the rest would enable statewide tax cuts.

Still, he won’t stray from his desire to tax the industry, and Republicans still oppose the proposal – especially House Speaker Bill Batchelder, R-Medina, for whom money from the oil and gas industry has made up about 10 percent of his political contributions since 2010. Kasich has joked that he may have to wait for Batchelder’s retirement at the end of next year to get the proposal through the General Assembly.

Be clear, Kasich says: There’s a difference between compromising to get legislation passed and compromising his principles. For instance, on issues such as expanding Medicaid or enacting some kind of fracking tax, “that gets down to when you feel you’re compromising your basic principles,” Kasich said.

FitzGerald, the Cuyahoga County executive who plans to challenge Kasich in 2014, agreed that a governor should balance compromise with core principles. But FitzGerald said his principles are different.

In the state budget that took effect last month, “I never would have gone along with an economic philosophy that says that people on the top end on the income bracket are going to get a tax cut, while people who are struggling on the lower end of the income bracket are going to get a tax increase,” he said. FitzGerald and Democrats opposed increasing the sales tax for across-the-board income-tax cuts, which saved wealthier Ohioans more money.

In advocating for Medicaid expansion, Kasich’s quest to follow his principles is set to face perhaps its biggest test yet.

If Ohio is to expand Medicaid to up to 366,000 residents, it has a deadline of early fall, according to the Kasich administration. For Ohio to begin enrolling new Medicaid members in time for the Jan. 1 arrival of federal money, legislators must take swift action when they return next month from their summer break.

Many Republicans, who control the General Assembly, are wary of the move, and a few who have supported the governor are already fighting off 2014 primary threats. So Kasich plans to continue to use every public appearance to tout his plan.

“Can we get people who are affected to understand what we’re doing?” he said. “But you don’t want to do everything by committees. Sometimes you have to make changes that the public won’t understand, ... but if you really feel that it’s vital, then you have to go and do it.”

'We have an obligation' to help those with less

That was the approach Kasich says he took in pushing through new elements of Ohio’s Third-Grade Reading Guarantee. Starting in May, schools must hold students back who don’t test at their grade level in reading by third grade. Studies show kids who are behind in third-grade reading are four times more likely to drop out. Still, being held back hurts students too, opponents say.

Kasich has been coy about what he might actually do if Republicans in the Ohio House and Senate don’t expand Medicaid. At some point, he needs legislative approval to accept the federal money. Democrats such as House Minority Leader Tracy Heard, D-Columbus, say Kasich should do more to pressure Republicans to move faster.

For Kasich, acting on principles increasingly comes down to faith, often in nontraditional ways. During his 2010 campaign for governor, he disregarded concerns from political advisersby publishing a book about his faith, which includes an evangelistic outline of his views on salvation. This year, his frequent mentions of the Bible and faith as a motivator for supporting Medicaid have frustrated opponents.

“These emotional arguments that he uses. ... There are real numbers and statistics that say this is a poorly performing program, and the idea that you’d put Ohioans on this poorly performing program as a compassionate solution – the rhetoric doesn’t work,” said Stevenot, the tea party leader.

Kasich pushed back on the notion that many conservative Christians oppose expanding Medicaid. He said he agrees with those who say it’s a sin to keep helping people who need to learn how to help themselves.

“I didn’t come to my conclusion about Medicaid by reading the Old and New Testament. I just know that we have an obligation as people who have blessings to try to help people who don’t have as many. What you want to do is push them out of the ditch so they can get back on the highway of life,” he said. “Faith is sort of an overarching position for me. People of faith can disagree. I’m just telling them how I feel about it.”

Kasich says election will come down to more than just issues

Kasich shares common ground with many Republicans on key issues such as economic development and advocating for income tax cuts. But some conservatives want more, Stevenot said.

For instance, Stevenot wants to see the governor push again for right-to-work legislation and a 401(k) system instead of defined pensions for state employees. Right now, tea partiers don’t have a third-party candidate to offer, he said. But many won’t support Kasich, period.

“He’ll lose votes as a result of this, and whether that’s enough to make Ed FitzGerald win, I really don’t know,” Stevenot said.

Kasich’s first election was by a narrow margin: He defeated former Gov. Ted Strickland 49 percent to 47 percent in 2010, buoyed in part by tea party support. Still, his approval rating in June hit its highest level yet, at 54 percent, climbing from a 30 percent approval rating early in his first year as governor, according to a poll by Quinnipiac University.

Slowly increasing numbers of poll respondents said they thought the economy was getting better, which likely boosted Kasich’s rating. While economists say Ohio’s economy is indeed improving, the pace of that economic growth has slowed in the past year, with Friday’s jobs report putting Ohio unemployment at 7.2 percent, unchanged from last month.

In the end, Kasich said, he believes the election will come down to more than just an issue or two.

“People are going to ask themselves, ‘How do I feel about my life?’ If they feel good, they’ll vote for me. If they don’t, they won’t,” he said.

“I believe around the state there’s a sense that Ohio’s really doing better.” ■